Kansas City Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
Request Free ConsultationFamily members seek the best possible nursing home within the family’s budget for a cherished elderly family member whose care needs exceed the family’s abilities. Placing a loved one in a nursing home requires a leap of faith that the facility lives up to its promises to provide skilled, compassionate care with respect for an elderly resident’s human dignity. Sadly, nursing homes sometimes fail to meet their required duty of care, and the result is serious harm to a vulnerable resident. In 2025, more than one-third of Kansas City’s nursing homes received the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare’s lowest possible grade, including citations for abuse. If you or your vulnerable loved one suffered nursing home abuse in Kansas City or the surrounding area, call the experienced attorneys at Miller & Hine for legal counsel.
Why Choose Miller & Hine as Your Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys In Kansas City?
At Miller & Hine, we understand the deep distress family members feel when learning that their elderly loved one suffered injuries from nursing home abuse. We provide significant benefits in your nursing home abuse case, including the following:
- An experienced investigation to document compelling evidence of liability against the nursing home
- Access to the best medical experts to strengthen the evidence of abuse-related harm to your loved one
- Assertive negotiators and trial-ready Kansas City personal injury attorneys who are devoted to ensuring that your family recovers the maximum compensation available
- Over 50 years of combined experience, knowledge, and resources to present the best possible case for justice through financial accountability
We never charge upfront fees to injury victims or their family members. Instead, we offer a free case evaluation and contingency-based payment. You pay nothing for our legal services until after you have your compensation in hand.
What Types of Nursing Home Abuse Occur In Kansas City?
Nursing home abuse takes several egregious forms, including in the nearly 100 nursing home facilities within 25 miles of the Kansas City metro area. The most common forms of nursing home abuse are described below.
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse occurs in nursing homes when a caregiver, staff member, visitor, or another resident intentionally causes physical harm to a resident. Examples of physical abuse include hitting, kicking, punching, pinching, shoving, and unnecessary physical restraint.
Neglect
Nursing home neglect in Kansas City occurs when caregivers fail to ensure that a resident receives adequate hydration, nutrition, personal hygiene, medical care, and their required medications as prescribed, resulting in a decline in their physical and mental health condition.
Nursing Home Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse in nursing homes is insidiously harmful, taking a mental and physical toll on many elderly victims with serious consequences, including decreased quality of life and reduced life span. Examples of nursing home emotional abuse include yelling, threatening, intimidation, belittling, berating, name-calling, intentional isolation, humiliation, or mocking a resident’s disability. Moving a disabled nursing home resident’s personal items out of reach is also a form of emotional abuse.
Financial Abuse
Accessing a nursing home resident’s personal financial accounts and making unauthorized transactions is considered financial abuse. Stealing personal items, misusing a resident’s personal expense account, or using coercion to gain money, loans, or access to a resident’s accounts and belongings are also examples of financial abuse.
Sexual Abuse In Nursing Homes
Sexual abuse is the least reported form of abuse in nursing homes, with about 1.9% of residents reporting this type of abuse. Unfortunately, sexual abuse may be underreported due to social stigma or the fear of retaliation. Sexual abuse includes sexual assault and any unwanted sexual contact from caregivers, staff members, visitors, intruders, or other residents.
Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Happen?
Nursing homes suffer from chronic understaffing and high staff turnover rates. Staffing shortages occur in nursing homes due to budget restraints and the unfavorable environment involved in caring for elderly residents suffering physical and mental decline. Inadequate funding, low wages, and a physically demanding job description contribute to nursing home staffing shortages. When nursing home caregivers have an unrealistic staff-to-resident care ratio, they become overwhelmed, exhausted, and dispirited, sometimes resulting in inadequate care and improper behaviors, including neglect and physical abuse against the residents in their care. When nursing home abuse occurs, the facility breaches its required duty of care, leaving the administration liable for damages like medical expenses, compensation for pain and suffering, or wrongful death benefits.
Recognizing Signs of Nursing Home Abuse In Kansas City
Abuse has a life-altering adverse effect on elderly residents, sometimes causing a shortened life expectancy, diminished quality of life, or wrongful death. An abused resident may not report their abuse due to fear of retaliation, shame, or because of cognitive or physical inability. Loved ones should watch for common signs of nursing home abuse, such as the following:
- Unexplained injuries
- Bruises
- Retraint marks
- Sudden weight loss
- Dry, cracked skin and lips
- Infected or unaddressed bed sores
- Bleeding around the private parts
- Broken personal items such as dentures and glasses
- Torn or bloodied bedding and clothing
- Poor hygiene
- Unclean room or bathroom
- Uneaten meals remaining in the room
- Reluctance to talk in front of caregivers
- Social withdrawal or changes in behavior
- Unusual or unexplained financial transactions
If you suspect your loved one has suffered from physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or financial abuse in a nursing home, it’s critical to act quickly.
What to Do If You Suspect a Loved One Has Suffered Abuse in a Kansas City Nursing Home
If your elderly loved one complains of abuse or displays signs of abuse, report your suspicions to the nursing home administration. Then, have the loved one undergo a thorough medical examination by a doctor who is unassociated with the facility. Call a nursing home abuse attorney from Miller & Hine to investigate the abuse and file a claim against the nursing home administration to recover the compensation your loved one deserves.
How Can a Kansas City Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Help?
Learning that a loved one suffered harm at the hands of those tasked with their care is devastating for all involved. By contacting a nursing home abuse lawyer, you can give your loved one a voice for justice. Your attorney from Miller & Hine will do the following:
- Investigate all aspects of the injury and abuse
- Carefully calculate the economic damages caused by the injury, neglect, or emotional abuse
- Present their findings to the nursing home and the facility’s liability insurance company
- Negotiate with the insurance company for the largest possible amount of compensation available through a settlement, or
- Take the matter before a judge and jury in court if the insurance company fails to provide the appropriate compensation
Compensation in a nursing home abuse case often includes reimbursement for medical expenses, future medical costs, a family member’s lost income, and compensation for pain and suffering or wrongful death.
Call Miller & Hine for Legal Representation In Your Nursing Home Abuse Case In Kansas City
Nursing homes must be held accountable when a vulnerable elderly resident suffers painful injuries or a decline in their quality of life due to abuse and neglect within their facilities. Call Miller & Hine Attorneys at Law so we can take prompt action to demand the financial accountability your loved one deserves.